My first commission

After the Fall Showcase, a family friend approached me wanting to commission me for a couple of paintings in her new home, and I was thrilled! She wanted to complement the feng shui of her dining room which overlooks the beautiful Hopatcong Lake, so I asked her for photos of memorable travels or scenes to choose from for a large landscape in the dining room, and a smaller piece over the fireplace.

I arranged a visit to measure the wall spaces she wanted to fill and discussed the best sizes for each painting. She had traveled to Jasper and taken a stunning photo of Spirit Island, and I immediately knew this would be the scene for the panoramic space in her dining room (closeups on IG). For the piece over the fireplace, I chose a sunset photo she had taken, to incorporate some pink and purple hues that she mentioned she liked.

The process overall took about a month and a half (including getting them framed and installing them) and it definitely was a valuable learning experience. I learned about my artistic tendencies when working from photos that I will work on moving forward, and realized there’s things like glare (example below) to look out for when choosing subject matter and paint mediums for paintings facing windows. Overall I’m happy about how both paintings turned out, and even more happy that the client is happy :)